Step aside, Sony Xperia Z3, the Motorola DROID Turbo is the new king of flagship battery life

When just a little over a month ago the Sony Xperia Z3 passed through our custom battery life benchmark with flying colors, it earned itself the title of the ultimate flagship endurance king. But a lot can happen in a month when we're talking about as competitive an industry as the mobile one, and, sure enough – the Motorola DROID Turbo happened.

Get a hold of this, folks – Motorola's insanely spec'd out new flagship clocked the amazing 10 hours and 43 minutes on our trying battery life test – more than any other high-end model we've tested, ever. In fact, the only two devices that are more resilient are the ZTE Max and the Huawei Ascend Mate 2, both of which are significantly less decked out. This puts the DROID Turbo ahead of the Xperia Z3 (9 hours 29 minutes) and even the Xperia Z3 Compact (10 hours 2 minute). What's more, this results gives the Turbo a solid lead on other Quad HD smartphones, like the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (8 hours 43 minutes) and the LG G3 (6 hours 14 minutes).

So how did the Turbo do it? Well, Motorola obviously did a commendable job picking up a power-efficient Quad HD screen, and we suspect a fair amount of optimizations were also carried out on the back end, but we obviously have to also address the fact that it packs an enormous, 3,900 mAh battery. Sure, that does come at the expense of thinness (the Turbo is 0.44 in- / 11.2 mm-thick), and this could very well be a deal-breaker, but we suspect quite a few people will be more than willing to overlook that considering what they're get in return. Now, just imagine if the Turbo had a 1080p screen...

Last, but not least, the otherwise massive cell inside the Turbo needs only 126 minutes, which is pretty impressive, considering its size. Take a look and, if you haven't done so yet – waste no time and go check out our in-depth review of the Motorola DROID Turbo.

Battery life

We measure battery life by running a custom web-script, designed to replicate the power consumption of typical real-life usage. All devices that go through the test have their displays set at 200-nit brightness.

Doesn't matter, the race to the top of the battery charts has begun in the Android world. With project Volta the battery life should increase another 20-30%. I haven't charged my nexus 5 in 3 days and with light use it is at around 40% right now. Each year is better than the last in the Android camp.

Really? How about speed, display, and build quality that beats just about every phone on the market right now. I just bought one yesterday and the screen is not dull at all. The numbers in the lab do not translate well in practical use. I found the screen to be very bright.

I don't know. I find the xperia z3 much more impressing.
It manages to keep a very slim build and roughly the same front size as the Turbo, and has "Only" a 3100 mah battery.
It still gets 9.5 hours, compared to the 10.6 the droid gets.

Considering the droid is ~60% thicker, the capacity is not impressive at all.
If the Z3 was the same thickness as the turbo, it could be packing a insane 4900mAh battery given the extra room, possibly even more given that there would be 4mm of extra space above where the SOC would be.

They should really kill this QHD and brittle thin trend. It will make production cost cheaper with more room for other hardware improvement. We need more battery life with average thickness devices that people can have a good grip with.

I don't think it will make the production cost cheaper, those screens must be cheap as hell, maybe even the 1080 is more expensive than the QHD, I dont know how screens are made in factorys, but you cant just say one screen is cheaper than the other.

At 11.2 mm thickness, this phone is able to fit only a 3900 mAh battery in its bulky chassis.

Note 4 is 3220mAh at only 8.5mm. And it gets just 2 hours less than the DROID turbo. Had the note 4 been 11.2 mm or so, it'd easily have had a battery at 4000mAh, then that would be an intriguing comparison.

only 3900??? what did you do on math class? how much higher and wider is the note 4??? So you are an engineer and know exactly how big battery they COULD fit if note was thicker??? Sorry, but they didnt.

All content (phone reviews, news, specs, info), design and layouts are Copyright 2001-2016 phoneArena.com. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part or in any form or medium without written permission is prohibited! Privacy . Terms of use . Cookies . Team